Moving to the Mac

It’s now been two months since my MacBook Pro arrived. I’ve always been sceptical about the benefits of moving to Apple. Windows covered both my business and personal computing and I felt that Apple products carried an excessive price premium. However I started to see the attraction of Apple technology when my business BlackBerry was swapped for an iPhone – as a business handset the iPhone is brilliant, especially for syncing with the Exchange server. When I canvassed views from friends with an interest in technology I got a very strong steer towards the MacBook Pro.

I decided to take the plunge and ordered a 15″ MacBook Pro and I haven’t been disappointed. The MacBook Pro offers a superb combination of hardware and software. The benefits of Apple controlling both the operating system and the hardware are apparent. Before I bought my MacBook someone said that the trackpad was worth the money alone! They weren’t far wrong! The MacBook Pro trackpad is brilliant and has completely changed the way I interact with my laptop. I always used to use a mouse but that’s redundant now. The trackpad makes the MacBook much more intuitive and enjoyable to use compared to my old laptop. The only problem I have is when I have to use the touchpad on my business HP laptop and realise how rubbish it is!

Hard to say if Mac OSX is more intuitive than Windows 7. I much prefer using it but that is probably down to personal taste. Most of the apps I used with Windows are available for the Mac or there’s something as good or better. iWork has replaced Office, Chrome is still there, Evernote has a great Mac app – to name a few. I’ve installed top ‘getting things done’ app, Things, which is probably my favourite productivity app of all time because it’s so useful and has made me much better organised. I’ll return to Things in a future post. Any disappointments on the software side? Skype for Mac lags the Windows client and eWallet for Mac isn’t great compared to the Windows version but moving all my data to an alternative secure wallet app looks like a nightmare!

The build quality of the MacBook Pro is fantastic. It’s impossible to compare the aluminium construction to any laptop I’ve used in the past because it’s so superior. The MacBook Pro is a bit light on USB ports, having only two, but in reality that hasn’t been a problem. I love the MagSafe power adaptor connector – different and nicer to use! The display is also excellent, as you’d expect.

Of course, all this comes with a price premium but if you view Apple products as premium products then somehow that premium doesn’t seem so unreasonable. Macs are not for everyone but if you’re looking for a new PC I would definitely recommend you consider them.